Expandable belt



w. J. REILLY EXPANDABLE BELT Filed Dec. 2, 1954 June l8 1957 INVENToR. L WILLIAM J. REILLY ATTORNEYS llnited States Patent G EXPANDABLE BELT William J. Reilly, Attleboro, Mass., assignor to Evans Case Co., a corporation of Massachusetts Application December 2, 1954, Serial No. 472,649

1 Claim. (Cl. 2-339) This invention relates to an apparel belt and more par- :ticularly to an apparel belt which is adapted to expand.

An object of the invention is to provide a belt construction that has more than one point of expansion.

Another object of the invention is to provide an eX- pandable belt construction which will not materially affeet the thickness of the belt.

A still further object of the invention is to provide an expandable belt construction in which the points of wear are distributed along the expansible portion.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists of certain novel features of construction as will be more fully described and particularly pointed out in the appended claim.

In the accompanying drawings:

Figure 1 is a plan front view of a belt embodying the features of my invention;

Figure 2 is a sectional view taken on llines 2--2 of Figure 1, showing one of the expansible portions in relaXed state;

Figure 3 is another sectional view taken at the point of lines 2 2 of Figure l, showing the elastic portion of the belt in expanded form; and

Figure 4 is a partial plan view of one of the expansible portions of the belt in expanded form.

In proceeding with this invention, I provide a belt construction embodying at least two loops which join together adjacent portions of the belt to make one continuous structure, the ends of the belt terminating in a buckle and a cooperating strap therefor. The sections of the belt are preferably formed by taking two pieces of material and stitching them together in back-to-back relationship and ailixing to each end thereof as by stitching or other suitable means a loop of elastic material that is passed around a metallic link. Over this elastic material a strip of leather may be placed so as to form a more pleasing appearance.

In the accompanying drawings, indicates generally a belt embodying my invention. The main portions of the belt consist of several strap-like portions 11, 12, and 13. In the embodiment shown portion 12 carries a buckle 14 or other fastening device for connection with the tongue end 13 of the belt 10. Each of the strap parts is preferably formed from two strips of material 15 and 15' (see Figure 2) placed in back-to-back relationship and stitched as at 16 (Figure 1). To the end of each of these strap-like portions there is `aii'lxed an elastic member 17 which loops around one bail 18 of a link 19.

This elastic loop member 17 may be made from any suitable material such as elastic webbing or the like.'y Tol provide a pleasing appearance, there is placed over this elastic member 17 a covering element 20 of the same material from which the face of the individual belt portions are made. It will be noted that both the elastic member 17 and the covering element 20 are fastened to the end of the belt strap-like portions by means of stitching as at 21 or some other suitable fastening means. It will also be noted that the length of the covering element 20 is much greater than that of the elastic member 17, and since the covering element resists elongation, it serves as a stop for the amount of extension that the elastic member 17 will take, the covering element 20 coming into tight abutting relationship with the bails 18. This structure is repeated for each of the connections to the metallic link 19. By referring to the drawings and particularly to Figures 2 and 3, it will be seen that the stop action of the covering elements 20 is secured by dimensioning the elements and by positioning the elements 20 relative to the ends of the strap sections 15 so that when the elastic loops are in a relaxed state, the elements 20 will abut each other. Thus the elements 20 are preferably longer than the loops 17 by an amount equal to one half the distance between the bails 1S of the links 19.

It will be noted that with the loop construction of the elastic element, the wear that would occur upon expansion of the belt is distributed over a substantial portion of the elastic element. Also the wear is evenly distributed between the two links in the embodiment shown and results in a four-point expansion with consequent wear distribution. It will also be apparent that while I have shown only two links 19 with elastic connections, any number may be provided throughout the length of the belt.

I claim:

In an apparel belt, a plurality of individual strap sections, said strap sections being interconnected to each other by a link and elastic loops, said link having a maximum width equal to the width of said strap sections, said link having two oppositely disposed spaced bails, elastic loops afxed to the ends of each of said strap sections and having a width less than the width of said strap sections, each loop embracing one bail of said link, a lengthwise non-expandable element 'embracing each bail and each loop and fastened to an end of each of said strap sections, said non-expandable element having a length greater than the length of said elastic loop when in a relaxed state equal to one half the distance between the bails of said link whereby said element will limit the expansion of said elastic loop to well within its elastic limit and said loop will equally distribute the expansion of the belt under stress.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS Staley Oct. 13, 1942 

